FC Gold Pride ends winless streak

  William Mancebo/Tri-City Voice (Fremont, Calif.)

Santa Clara, Calif. -- FC Gold Pride and Washington Freedom have met three times in the inaugural year of Women’s Professional Soccer, twice at their home field – Buck Shaw Stadium at Santa Clara University.

Even though Gold Pride is the lowest scoring team in WPS, when the Freedom opposes them on their turf, they play like an offensive juggernaut.

And with their 3-2 come-from-behind victory on Saturday afternoon, the Gold Pride also won for the first time in 11 matches, going 0-6-4, dropping to last place in the standings. (In the previous meeting between FC Gold Pride and Washington Freedom at Buck Shaw, Washington beat FC Gold Pride 4-3 on April 26; the other meeting had Washington winning 3-1 on May 31 at their home field in Maryland.)

“Defensively we’ve got to do better than that,” said Freedom Head Coach Jim Garbarra. “It’s been our Achilles heal all season: we haven’t been able to shut teams down.”

Second-half substitute Adriane was able to put the Gold Pride on top in the 84th minute. Off a loose ball on a Gold Pride corner kick, Adriane hit an off-balance shot from just outside the 18-yard box, which found its way through the Freedom’s entire defensive unit and by keeper Erin McLeod, off the post and into the net.

The goal came just a minute after Abby Wambach pounced on a loose ball in the box fed to her by Allie Long and slid it by Gold Pride keeper Allison Whitworth, but off the post and out.

“Margin of error in this league is very narrow,” said Gabarra. “We had a couple chances, one goes off the post, then they go down the other end and score; it kind of turns the game.”

Adriane’s goal secure the victory for the Gold Pride, who came back from a 2-1 halftime deficit. Three minutes into the second half, Tiffeny Milbrett evened the match.

“FC Gold Pride five or seven games ago would have folded and that would have been a loss,” said Milbrett. “But now … we’re on a pretty even keel, concentrating on doing our job … and you see results coming because of that.”

Washington’s defensive line was able to step in front of a Christine Sinclair shot on goal, but were caught out of position. Sinclair’s shot ricocheted to Milbrett behind the defense, who beat McLeod to tie the game at 2-2.

“I’ve been having some great chances lately that I’ve missed,” said Milbrett. “It just felt so good to step up and put one in for the team.”

“When you’re down … coming out and scoring within the first five or 10 minutes, you’re right back in the game,” said FC Gold Pride Head Coach Albertin Montoya. “Anything can happen after that … and we ended up getting the win.”

Prior to the Milbrett goal, Washington erased a 1-0 Gold Pride lead with two goals by Homare Sawa, giving them their 2-1 halftime lead.

First, Sawa got a lucky bounce to draw the Freedom even with the Gold Pride in the 17th minute. When Jill Gilbeau streaked up the right sideline from her defensive position, she crossed the ball into the six-yard box.

“I think the ball hit the back of my head,” said Sawa through a translator. “I don’t really know. Maybe the keeper hit it into my head.”

Whitworth was able to track the ball and punch it while being hit by Sawa. Whitworth’s punch was altered because of the body blow by Sawa, and only deflected it, which hit Sawa in the back of her head and into the net.

“There was a whole lot of contact on it,” said Whitworth. “At this point, it’s irrelevant in the result of the game. We got the win even after a call or non-call … I’m just glad we got the win.”

Twenty-one minutes later, Sawa gave her team the lead. A poor clearance by the Gold Pride defense was pounced on by Sawa just outside the 18-yard box. After Sawa freed herself with space to shoot, she drilled a shot by Whitworth for a 2-1 lead, which they took to halftime.

But Montoya still went into the locker room at halftime and gave his girls this motivational speech: “We’re going to win this game,” which, of course, came to fruition.

FC Gold Pride took an early lead when rarely-used Kimberly Yokers one-timed a shot from 35 yards out off a pass from Sinclair.

“You got to give credit to Kim Yokers who came in not having played that much,” said Milbrett. “She scored an amazing goal for herself and our team.”

Tina DiMartino stole the ball for the Gold Pride around the midfield stripe. She then fed Sinclair who took a strike at target but was blocked. The block bounced right back to Sinclair who slid a pass across to Yokers who promptly struck a shot to the top right corner behind McLeod for the 1-0 lead in the ninth minute.

FC Gold Pride improved to 4-9-5 with the win, boosting them up to a tie for sixth in the seven-team league with 17 points with the Chicago Red Stars. (FC Gold Pride’s last victory came on May 16 at Chicago, 1-0.) Washington dropped to 7-7-5 after the loss, third place in the WPS with 26 points, one point ahead of the Boston Breakers for third.

Gold Pride ends their season with two games this week: Wednesday, August 5, 4 p.m. at Sky Blue FC (New Jersey); and Sunday, August 9, 3 p.m. versus St. Louis Athletica. Washington concludes their regular season with a Saturday, August 8, 7 p.m. match versus Sky Blue FC.

Washington still has a shot at making the playoffs, which consist of the top four teams in the WPS. Playoffs begin on August 15.

Game notes: Yellow cards: Carrie Dew (FCGP, 61st). Substitutions: Leslie Osborne for Yokers (FCGP, 45th); Lisa DeVanna for Rebecca Moros (Wash., 45th); Long for Sarah Senty (Wash., 57th); Leigh Ann Robinson for Brandi Chastain (FCGP, 58th); Lori Lindsey for Ali Krieger (Wash., 78th); Adriane for Eriko Arakawa (FCGP, 81st). Shots: Wash., 12; FCGP, 12. Shots on goal: Wash., 7; FCGP, 7. Saves: Wash., 4; FCGP, 5. Corner kicks: Wash., 1; FCGP, 8. Offsides: Wash., 1; FCGP, 0. Fouls: Wash., 8; FCGP, 5. Attendance: 2,324. Referees: Daniel Radford, referee; Marlene Duffy and Veronica Perez, referee’s assistants; and Andres Pefferkorn, fourth official.